Bonds of Three
by 9SnapDragon9
Summary: The number three is a very powerful number. Throughout the ages, the gathering of three great powers brought great changes to the world. Both good and bad. As three new powers arise, what changes will they bring to their world. Though they may face many tough challenges and foes, they will blast through any wall together. They are... the Uzumaki siblings!


**I know that I have another story already going, but I couldn't get this idea out of my head so here it is. And the way I see it is that if I get stuck on my other story, I can come work on this one so that way I can still get something out. Anyway, here is an over four thousand word chapter, don't expect it to always be that way. Also, I know the summary says Naruko, but I actually use a different name. I give my respect to anyone who gets the hidden meaning behind the name without looking it up.**

* * *

 _Prologue:_

 _Team 7 is Formed!_

* * *

 _Roaring. Screaming. Crying. It all filled his ears. It was horrible, and yet no matter how much he tried he couldn't reach his hands up to plug his ears._

 _His nose burned with the smell of burning flesh, and his eyes stung with smoke. He felt a burning pain through his entire body, as if needles were being stuck into every inch of his skin._

 _Suddenly, his eyes caught sight of two people, a man and a woman, collapsed on the ground, blood pooling around them. They looked familiar, but he didn't know from where. Suddenly the woman began speaking to someone else that he couldn't see._

" _His name is-"_

* * *

"Naruto, wake up, Iruka's here," a voice said as the person lightly shoved Naruto's shoulder. Naruto groggily sat up straight as his favorite teacher entered the classroom. Naruto glanced over and thanked his friend, Kiba, for waking him.

Kiba had short brown hair, and two red markings on his cheeks, typical of those in the Inuzuka clan. He wore a hooded gray jacket, and a small white pup was sitting on his head.

Just on the other side of Kiba was a girl with pale lavender eyes and dark blue hair. She wore a large beige jacket, which she pretty much sunk into. This was Hinata Hyuuga

All three of them had just graduated from the Ninja Academy and became genin, even if Naruto had been more of a field promotion since he hadn't actually passed the graduation test the usual way.

Naruto lightly touched the headband tied around his forehead, which had been given to him by Iruka the other day.

He had failed the regular test because he couldn't do the stupid clone jutsu. Well, he technically could do it, but they didn't come out right.

After failing to become a genin, Naruto had been approached by another teacher, Mizuki, who told him about a secret test that would allow him to become a genin if he passed it. So that night, Naruto snuck into the Hokage Tower and stole a special scroll in order to learn a jutsu out of it.

Naruto had picked the Shadow Clone Jutsu, which he was able perform because it took a lot less chakra control than a normal clone. And the best part was that they were solid and could actually be used for fighting.

However, it turned out that Mizuki was simply a traitor who wanted to get his hands on the scroll to give to his boss, whoever that was. Mizuki had revealed to Naruto that contrary to what he had believed, the destructive being known as the Kyuubi had not been killed, but instead had been sealed inside him.

At first Naruto froze, but after hearing that Iruka believed in him, Naruto opened a giant can of butt-whup on Mizuki using his newly discovered jutsu to pound the traitor unconscious.

After that, Iruka had given Naruto his own headband and promoted Naruto genin. It had possibly been one of the happiest day of the young boy's life. And then Iruka had treated Naruto to as much Ramen as he could eat, which the teacher soon regretted.

As Iruka began listing off who would be on what team, Naruto looked down to the row in front of him. He glared daggers at the back of his self-declared rival, Sasuke Uchiha.

The raven haired last Uchiha sat staring uninterestedly at the space in front of him. And as much as Naruto hated to admit, Sasuke was stronger than him. But that would change, Naruto would learn a bunch of awesome ninjutsus and then kick Sasuke's butt halfway to outer space.

Sitting beside the Uchiha were Naruto's two siblings, Menma and Nori.

Menma was stoic, but not a stick in the mud like Sasuke. He was the youngest of the three triplets. He had blonde hair like Naruto, but his was quite a bit longer. He had violet eyes, and wore his headband around his right arm. Menma was definitely the voice of reason between the three siblings, and did his best to keep Naruto and Nori out of trouble. He had a single whisker mark on either side of his face. He wore a dark green shirt with a red spiral pattern on the back, and a pair of loose grey shorts.

Nori had bright, shoulder length red hair that she kept tied into a braid. Like Menma, her eyes were also violet, but much brighter than his. She was very easy going and carefree, and was like the glue that held the three together through thick and thin. She wore her headband around her neck. She was the middle child and had two whisker marks on each cheek. She wore a violet dress with two slits going from the bottom to the thigh, for better mobility, with a white stripe circling around her waist. As with the clothes of her two brothers, her costume bore a red whirlpool like mark, hers emblazoned on the stomach area of her dress. Underneath her dress,she had on a pair of knee length black shorts.

"Team 6 will consist of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sai and will be led by Kakashi Hatake," Iruka stated, and Naruto snickered at his rival's misfortune. The pinkette named Sakura immediately let out a cheer about the power of love prevailing. The pale black haired boy known as Sai quickly replied, "Be quiet, Homely."

Iruka sighed in annoyance. "Team 7 will be composed of Naruto Uzumaki, Menma Uzumaki, and Nori Uzumaki and will be led by Hayate Gekkou."

Naruto and Nori let out a loud cheer at being placed on the same team, while Menma simply smiled lightly.

The final two teams were Hinata, Kiba, and a boy from the Aburame clan known as Shino on a team led by a Kurenai Yuhi. Then there was the classic Ino-Shika-Cho trio of Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chouji Akimichi with Asuma Sarutobi.

Seconds later a young man with brown hair and dark lines under his eyes walked through the door.

"Team 7, please follow me," he said, his speaking interrupted by a bout of coughing.

The three Uzumaki siblings got out of their seats and followed their new sensei out of the academy. They ended up all trying to get out the door at once, and thus got stuck as they tried to push themselves out the door. After a few moments of squirming and pushing, they managed to escape and continued to follow their new sensei.

They eventually stopped at a small ridge overlooking one of the various training grounds. Their sensei sat down, and the Uzumaki triplets followed suit.

"So you three are my new genin team? I suppose you'll have opportunity to prove yourselves soon enough," he said, coughing a few more times. "But first we should get introductions out of the way. I'll go first. My name is Hayate Gekkou. I like perfecting my sword style in my spare time, I dislike being worried over because of my chronic coughing, and my dream for the future is to start a family with the woman I love."

Seconds had barely passed before Naruto began his own introduction. "So we just have to follow your lead, right, Hayate-sensei? My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like cup ramen, I hate waiting the three minutes for it to cook, and my dream for the future is to become the strongest Hokage so that the entire village will acknowledge me, dattebayo." Naruto grinned, and Hayate and Menma sweatdropped at the whiskered blonde's intro.

"Same old Aniki," Menma muttered. "My name is Menma Uzumaki. I like studying medical jutsus to help my siblings, I dislike it when they drag me into one of their stupid pranks, and my dream for the future is to surpass Tsunade of the Sannin in both strength and medical ninjutsu."

"At least he's somewhat normal," Hayate whispered to himself. "It's your turn, young lady."

"Right, Seki-sensei! My name is Nori Uzumaki. I like giving nicknames to everyone I meet, I dislike it when we only get one bowl at Ichiraku Ramen, and my dream is to help Onii-chan and Menma realize their dreams, dattebana!"

Nori pulled her brothers into a tight hug, and Hayate smiled. This would be an easy team to train together since they already had a great bond, one which continue to strengthen with time. Now all that was left, was to put that bond to the test.

"It's nice to meet all three of you, and I hope that you pass the final test for graduating from the academy so that we can get to know each other some more."

"Final test?" Naruto and Nori echoed, staring at their sensei as they waited for an explanation.

"I figured as much," Menma said. "If they let every single person who passed the simple academy test become a ninja, then our forces would be filled with tons of ninja who wouldn't actually be any good. It makes sense to have another additional test to weed out the bad candidates."

Menma suddenly flinched as his other two siblings stared intently at him. "Know-it-all."

Hayate chuckled, before coughing into his hand. "Menma's correct. In fact out of all those who passed the academy test, only about twelve will become actual shinobi."

Naruto laughed nervously, the corner of his right eye twitching slightly. "T-Twelve? Hah, we'll definitely be part of that number! Right, guys?"

"There's no guarantee, but we will try our best," Menma replied, arms folded in front of his chest.

"Besides, whether we win or lose, we'll do it together, and that's all that matters!" Nori exclaimed from between the two.

"That's what I like to hear. Meet up back here tomorrow morning and make sure to get plenty of sleep and a good breakfast." All three let out a loud cheer of agreement and then took off. Hayate hoped that they would actually eat something before they came tomorrow; he didn't want to feel like Kakashi Hatake with his spartan training methods.

Thinking about that made Hayate feel sorry for the poor genin who were undoubtedly still waiting for their sensei, whose reputation for harsh training methods was only proceeded by his reputation by being incredibly late for everything.

However, Kakashi was an expert when it came to testing a team's teamwork. And Hayate did have to head to the hospital for one of his routine check ups, so maybe he would asked his fellow jounin to help out tomorrow…

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto and his siblings were currently enjoying their favorite food, ramen from Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto and Nori rapidly inhaled a bowl and quickly asked for another which soon joined the huge pile of empty bowls. Menma was much slower with his eating and his pile only had a single bowl in it.

Finishing his bowl and sliding it to the side, Menma sighed at his two siblings. They just couldn't slow down when it came to eating.

After the other two finished adding ramen to the bottomless pits that were there stomachs, Menma paid the bill and the three headed home.

Back at their apartment, the three crawled into each of their beds with heads filled of thoughts of the next day. Naruto himself was pretty nervous, he hadn't been expecting another test, but he would be sure to pass it.

As Nori's snores filled the room, Naruto turned over to look at his headband, the metal flickering in the moonlight. He had to make sure that he didn't let Iruka regret giving him it.

The next morning, the three siblings ate breakfast and then headed off to the training ground where they were supposed to have their test. Immediately, they saw three other figures waiting there. Team 6.

Naruto quickly pointed his finger at Sasuke. "What the heck are you doing here, -ttebayo?!"

"I could say the same thing to you, loser," he replied. "We've been waiting here for hours for our sensei to show up. Is he always going to be late?"

"Who was your sensei again?" Menma questioned.

"Kakashi Hatake," Sai answered, and the three Uzumaki siblings were struck completely silent.

Suddenly, loud, gut-busting laughter echoed through the training grounds. Naruto and Nori were the main source of it, but even Menma was chuckling. Sakura's brow twitched dangerously.

"What's so funny?"

"It's… just," Nori said in between breathing and laughing, "Ecchi-sensei is famous for being late to everything, and he makes up the most ridiculous excuses for it, dattebana."

"I would appreciate it if you didn't tell everyone your little nickname for me, Nori," a lazy voice said from behind the girl in question. She turned and stared blankly at him.

"But it's true."

Kakashi sighed, there was just no changing things once Nori gave you a nickname. All you could do was hope that she didn't give you a bad one. Such was not his luck, and now he was forever stuck with that nickname.

"Where's our sensei?" Naruto asked, looking up at Kakashi

"Hm? Oh, Hayate had a bit of a problem and had to go to the hospital. So he asked me to administer your test as well."

"Really?" Naruto exclaimed. "Well, at least I'll be able to kick your butt, Kakashi-sensei!"

"Don't get too full of yourself, Onii-chan," Nori berated, "Ecchi-sensei is no pushover, despite his choice of what he reads."

Naruto crossed his arms behind his head, a cheerful grin spread across his face. Kakashi reached into his bag and pulled out two pair of bells and dangled them out in front of the two teams.

"Okay, now I have four bells here. Two for Team 6 and two for Team 7. Your goal is to get the bells from me using any means necessary, and those of you who have grabbed a bell by lunch will become fully fledged shinobi."

"So that's why he told us not to eat anything for breakfast," Sakura said, her stomach traitorously growling as if to remind her of the fact that she hadn't had dinner the previous night either.

"I'm absolutely gonna pass, -ttebayo!"

Kakashi hadn't even said go yet, but Naruto, with a kunai in hand, charged right at silver haired man. Kakashi was faster, though, and quickly got behind Naruto and pointed the boy's own weapon at his neck.

"Now, now, let's not be rash. I haven't even said go yet." A bead of sweat travelled down Naruto's neck. "However, I am impressed. You came at me with the intent to kill with no hesitation. Let's begin."

All six genin quickly ran to find a place to hide and wait for an opportunity to strike or come up with a plan.

Sai was the first to attack. He rushed out of his hiding place and unleashed three ink tigers from the scroll he was holding in his hand. Kakashi easily dodged them all as Sai rushed closer. Kakashi lazily blocked a strike from Sai's tanto and reached into a pouch, pulling out the orange covered book which had earned him his nickname.

With a quick flip to the ground, Kakashi put Sai out of the game for a short time. He then walked into the forest to weed the other genin out. Moments later, the forest reverberated with a loud scream that had come from a certain pinkette.

Meanwhile the three Uzumaki siblings were huddled together and trying to come up with a plan of attack. Preparing themselves for the difficult task ahead, they began searching for Kakashi's location.

They soon found him standing over Sasuke, who was stuck in the ground up to his chin. Naruto struggled not to laugh and give away their position, but it was nearly killing him inside to not be able to make fun of his rival.

As his siblings circled around, Naruto rushed out and began the assault. He sent a strong kick with his left leg to the side of Kakashi's head. The masked man blocked the blow with his forearm, but Naruto continued to relentlessly attack.

Suddenly, Nori and Menma burst out of the bushes behind Kakashi and joined in on battering Kakashi with taijutsu. Due to all three attacking him at once, he actually had to place his book back in his pouch, otherwise he wouldn't be able to keep up.

While Team 7 was trying to obtain their bells, Team 6 was recovering nearby and watching the Uzumakis actually put up a fight against Kakashi. Sure, he wasn't having a hard time, but they weren't getting defeated immediately either.

The three worked together like a machine, grabbing each other to get out of the way of an attack or to throw the other into Kakashi in order to add a bit of extra force into the blow.

Naruto formed his hands into a hand seal, calling forth several clones. Two began throwing shurikens and kunai at Kakashi, while the other began blocking any escape routes.

Suddenly, Kakashi felt something slash across his hand, and turned to see that the shurikens and kunai being thrown at him were actually flying around back at him. He then saw chakra strands connecting them to Menma's hands, and his eyes widened.

For a genin to already be this skilled at just creating and attaching chakra threads to objects was impressive enough, but to actually use it like this in combat… Perhaps Kakashi should have asked to train this team instead. At least they seemed to have the teamwork that his own team was currently lacking.

Then, Nori performed a near instantaneous shunshin, putting her behind him, and she landed a good kick to his back. Next, Naruto created dozens of shadow clones which surrounded and leaped on top of Kakashi. He easily broke out of it though, and appeared behind Naruto while crouching.

With his hands in hand seal, Kakashi looked up with a gleam in his visible eye. "Hidden Leaf Secret Jutsu," he began, all onlookers expecting some type of ninjutsu, "Thousand Years of Death!"

His fingers shot forward, stabbing into Naruto's butt and sending the poor boy flying towards the river. But in midair, he smirked.

"Do it now!"

Kakashi was surprised, but suddenly felt one of the bells going missing, grasped in the hand of Nori. But before Menma could grab the other, Kakashi grabbed his wrist and flung him away.

"Nice job," Kakashi congratulated, "you managed to get one of the bells."

"Actually we've already got both," Menma corrected. Kakashi looked down, but the other bell was still there. But when he looked up, he saw Menma holding his beloved Icha Icha.

"No," Kakashi said in disbelief.

"The deal is simple, Kakashi-sensei. The bell for this book."

Several silent seconds passed, but Kakashi caved in. He had said by any means necessary, after all, and it had come back to bite him in the butt.

A cheery, yet soaking wet Naruto joined up with his siblings. They followed Kakashi as he gathered up his own team and lead them to three logs propped in the middle of the field. Kakashi tied Sakura to one of them because of how poorly she had done. And as the other five began eating lunch, he looked at Team 7.

"Congratulations, Menma, Nori. Both of you managed to get a bell from me. Naruto, you were unable to get a bell, so it seems that you will have to return to the academy."

Naruto was silent for a moment, but then he looked up with a wide grin. "That's fine! I can try again next time. Besides, more importantly, I managed to help Nori and Menma pass."

Nori looked down at her bell, and then back at Naruto. She quickly shoved the bell into his hand. "Here, my dream doesn't require me to become a ninja, so you take this and fulfill your dream, Onii-chan."

Naruto looked at Nori, and then shared a look with Menma. They knew what they had to do Both of them handed the bells back to Kakashi.

"We don't need these, Kakashi-sensei," Menma said. "If one of us can't become a ninja, then none of us will become a ninja."

Naruto grinned and folded his hands behind his head. "Either we all pass, or we all go back to the academy together."

Nori looked at the two of them before rapidly hitting them on their backs. "Stupid! Idiots! What about your dreams?"

Naruto faced her with a stare. "But if you're not there beside us when we fulfill our dreams, then it won't mean anything. I'd rather never become the Hokage then become one by abandoning you."

Kakashi looked at the three siblings before smiling. "Congratulations, all three of you have passed."

Six sets of eyes whipped to face the lazy jounin. "What?!"

"All three of you managed to grab a bell," Kakashi said, but then elaborated when he saw the confused stares. "I never said that all three of you had to actually be holding onto the bell when the test was over, just that you had to grab one. Nori gave her bell to Naruto, and thus he managed to grab one as well."

"You should have told us that sooner!" Was the near-unanimous shout from the genin, excluding Sasuke and Sai, the uchiha simply glaring at his sensei.

Kakashi then told three Uzumakis that they could leave, and they did. Nori waved to the other three genin.

"Bye, Tomato-kun, Toritsukare-chan, Awai-kun!"

All three sweatdropped at their given nicknames. While a faint look of embarrassment could be seen on Sasuke's face. Did she really need to nickname him after his favorite food?

The three new shinobi were out of sight and earshot of the others when Kakashi appeared beside them.

"Gah! Don't do that!" Naruto exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm giving those three one last chance, and I needed to get some distance," he explained, burying his nose inside his book. "I can see that you guys haven't forgotten what I told you all that time ago."

"Yep," all three exclaimed. "'Those who break the rules are scum, but those who would abandon even one of their comrades are worse than scum.'"

Kakashi smiled under his mask. "Well, I think that you three will make a wonderful team. I'll make sure to tell Hayate all about how well you did today."

As Kakashi disappeared to check up on his team, the three siblings were left staring at the spot that he had just been standing in.

"Did Kakashi-sensei… just compliment us?" Naruto questioned, blinking slowly.

Menma turned his head to the heavens. "The sky's not even falling."

"Ecchi-sensei isn't so bad after all," Nori stated, the wind picking up her hair and making it waver to the side.

* * *

Hayate was looking for Naruto. He had already congratulated Nori and Menma for passing the test, but Naruto hadn't been with them. And if that wasn't strange enough, he hadn't told either of his siblings where he was going.

Hayate concentrated hard, he hadn't had a whole lot of sensor training, just some basics. If he could put those basics to use, he might be able to find Naruto thanks to the boy's unique chakra.

And sure enough, Hayate eventually sensed the unmistakable signature of Naruto. But he was at the memorial monument, a strange place for a new genin. Hayate headed over there, and when he arrived he saw Naruto just standing there and staring at the monument.

Hayate approached the young child and placed a hand on his shoulder. Naruto looked up at Hayate with curious eyes. "Oh, hey, Hayate-sensei."

"I just came to congratulate you on passing Kakashi's test. Despite you guys not being his team he's been bragging to all the other jounin. He actually went to Lord Third to try to switch teams with me. He really liked your teamwork."

"Yeah, I'm really surprised we actually passed. We never had any chances to fight together in the academy. It was always one on one sparring."

Hayate nodded in silence and waited several moments before asking the question nagging at his mind. "So what are you doing here?"

Naruto looked up at Hayate again before running his hand alongside the monument. "While were over here earlier I noticed this, and it made me remember something." Hayate looked down at Naruto and saw a deep sadness inside the boy's eyes. "Hey, Hayate-sensei, is it wrong of me to wish that my parents' names are on this stone?"

Hayate thought for a second before answering, "It depends. Why do you want their names to be on there?"

"Well, the old ma- the Hokage told me that my parents were both ninja and that me and my siblings were given to the orphanage on the day of our birth. And since our birthday happens to be the same day that the Kyuubi attacked the village, our parents would have done all they could to fight it off, or at least our father would have.

"But if their names aren't on here for that day, then it means that they didn't die on that day and they abandoned us. I've never really cared about it that much for myself, but I would hate it for Menma and Nori. And I've been wondering if it was my fault, since the Kyuubi's sealed inside of me."

Hayate wondered if Naruto knew what he had just said about having the Kyuubi inside him, but Hayate had already know anyway so it didn't really matter.

Hayate took the boy by the shoulder and began leading away from the stone. "I'm sure that your parents didn't abandon you, and even if they did then they don't deserve to be called parents. Maybe you could go to the library and try to find anyone with your last name in the records. Now. let's go grab your siblings and I'll treat you to dinner for your great success."

Naruto's mood instantly did a 180. "Really!? You're the best, Hayate-sensei!"

Poor Hayate had no idea what he was getting himself into.

* * *

 **Right, well one last thing to add before ending, an explanation/translation for the nicknames that aren't so obvious.**

 **Seki-sensei: Seki means cough in Japanese, and since Hayate's main trait is his chronic cough, I thought it would fit.**

 **Toritsukare-chan: Toritsukare means obsessed, which considering how Sakura was in the series, especially at that point, the nickname just fit.**

 **Amai-kun: Amai could actually mean a lot of things depending on the kanji used, but in this instance it means pale. And seeing as how Sai looks like a vampire who's never left his coffin, I think it's a good nickname.**

 **Well, I hope you guys look forward to the next chapter, and don't worry the new Team 7 will not always be hanging around Kakashi's team. The only other part will be for part of the land of waves arc. I just really wanted to use Kakashi's nickname and have him use the Thousand Years of Death on Naruto. I also wanted them to have that little chat with Kakashi.**

 **And on one final note, what do you guys think of Menma and Nori? I had a lot of fun with their personalities and designs, but I think I completely butchered trying to explain Nori's clothes.**


End file.
